We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploration
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Something very important happened in my arriving at Laconja on the full moon. But it was nothing anticipated. And the only anticipation you should travel with - is that you will be surprised.
The New Age Shamans encamped at the Tucan Verde had a sweat on the night of the full moon. I helped gather wood. And then fell into a blissfull deep trance of sleep that nobody could make me leave.
I asked Ishmael if there was going to be a Baluum/Baoxche Ceremony. He said he was sure there would be one eventually. But when he didn't know. And even though the ceremony are now only for Lacondon Mayan - I was invited.
My Spanish is better. My seeing of this place is clearer. I can not say I know this place. It is several lifetime studies. But I see and understand more than during my first visit.
The rumble in the jungle has escalated. Shortly after I left people from the government came and said the land where Laconja stands, 25 million hectares, millions of hectates of jungle, all the public lands in this part of Chiapas had been sold. It was a done deal. Everyone would have to sell out and leave.
Those with enough property were to get shiny new pick up trucks for compensation.
Ishmael and many others blockaded the main highway. There was a massive show of the Mexican Army. But the national elections are imminent. Nobody was hurt - this time.
Children are being busted for herb. When the police arrested the first boy, Ishmael was there and he protested. He was accused of growing and selling herb - something he would never do. He was threatened.
Ishmael told them to bring it on bee-otch.
The police continue to persecute the children of those who are resisting the government/evangelico agenda.
Evangelico pastors, who are not Lacondon Mayans, had told their flocks in Laconja that because Lacondon Mayans were still worshipping the devil/following their traditional ways, there would be 40 days of rain. The weight of the water would make Chiapas sink into the earth - all the way to hell.
Their flocks sold all their belongings and fleed to Vera Cruz. Then it didn't rain. Now they are returning to Laconja penniless. But they still follow the pastors.
The ancestors of the Lacondon Mayan retreated to the caves of the mountains of the Lacondon Jungle when the Spanish were completing their fiercely contested conquest of the Yucatan. They went to the caves to continue their resistance to the white man world, to control from outsiders.
The Mayans knew that these caves were portals to other worlds. They entered into the wonder world of the jungle. They learned how to cultivate gardens in the jungle. They reconsecrated the sacred places in the ruined cities. The lakes and waterfalls in the jungle became their cathedrals. The entire jungle and its mystery became their greatest cathedral.
Then the Pentecostal Evangelico missionaries came and told the Lacondon Mayan that the jungle is where the devil lives, the jungle must be destroyed to make it fit for the cows.
But for the children of Laconja the jungle remains the most wonderful playground that can be imagined.
When I was here last time I was invited by the children to go with them in the jungle to visit their sacred places. For one reason or another I was unable to accept that invitation then. But I immediately accepted the invitation when it was offered this time.
Two of Ishmael's sons, Elevar, 13, Rene, 11, and two of their friends Humberto, 15, and Evon, 14 were my guides. We went far into the jungle, crossed the Rio Laconja.
There was a beautiful moment of mirth when I fell through a log bridge, into white water, but emerged unscathed.
We climbed to a high ridge that was lined with caves with human bones, ancient pottery, the fossils of an ancient sea, arrow heads, and pieces of stone knives.
Ishmael's sons ernestly dug for treasure with the machete.
I told them that the greatest treasure of the caves of the jungle was the mystery of the caves of the jungle.
I came to Laconja during the hottest time of the year. There was some of the hottest days I have lived through since India - thirty years ago.
As it was in India the sky tortures the earth with the promise of rain. The people yearn for the rain.
And when it comes. It is in all ways a joyous thing.